The More Things Change
by charliespike18
Summary: Don't worry about the little things in life. Always look at the big picture, then everything will be okay–that's what they tell you isn't it? But sometimes, just sometimes, that's not true. The little things do matter if you think about it-you change one small thing and everything could be different. One heartbeat is all you need to change everything. What would your life be like?
1. Chapter 1

**_Title: The more things change_**

 ** _Pairings (Mentioned or otherwise): Callie/George, Izzie/Alex, Lexie/Jackson Meredith/Owen, Derek/Addison, Burke/Cristina, Bailey/Ben, Derek/Meredith, Owen/Amy, Alex/Jo, Lexie/Mark, Jackson/April, Addison/Jake sort of Callie/Arizona_**

 ** _Rating/Warning: T_**

 ** _A/N I decided to write this fic after watching If/Then again and noticing how, even though it's all based off the fact that Ellis never get's Alzheimer's, everything that changes - for example Alex's pepy-ness or no one liking Cristina – doesn't actually stem from this decision; they are just random. So this fic is me trying to attempt to see what all the repercussions would be if you changed something small in the Grey's universe. So for pairing mentioned above, some are them are repercussions of the change while some I intend to be endgame._**

 ** _IMPORTANT: This fic is an AU based from the point that Addison slept with Mark and thus causing Derek to move to Seattle. In this Addison and Mark didn't sleep together so Derek never moved – this fic is seeing how this would've effected the people at Seattle Grace/Mercy West/Grey Sloan and is set 2015 so the changes have had time to manifest/occur. If you want to know why I've made certain decisions about how/why this changes things for the characters just PM me and I'll try my best to explain._**

… _.._

 _Don't worry about the little things in life. If you aim big, always look at the big picture, then everything will be okay – that's what they tell you isn't it?_

 _But sometimes, just sometimes, that's not true. The little things do matter if you think about it – you change one small thing and everything could be different. One moment, one heartbeat is all you need to change everything. What would your life be like?_

…..

The grass is wet with rain but thankfully the clouds have closed and no more falls. Callie Torres stares down at the grave and then at the man stood beside her. Alex gives her a small smile, dropping his gaze to headstone a few metres away. Callie reaches down and shifts the position of the flowers on the ground – trying to make sure they're in the right place. Her eyes, for a second, flick to the name engraved in the stone but she's already memorised every dip and curve of the lettering on it, all the words on George O'Malley's grave.

Six graves down, Alex Karev stuffs his hands into his pockets. Even though the rain has stopped the air is still bitingly cold and Alex is trying to stay warm. He half turns to look at Callie but most of his attention is still on the grave. The fresh red of the flowers contrast like blood against the grey of the grave in the afternoon gloom and he closes his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Karev?" Callie whispers in the cold. "You ready yet?"

"Give me a second yeah?" he replies a heartbeat later, his eyes flicking open. Alex looks down at the grave one last time; the pain washing over him as forcefully as a flood - like it always does when he lets it get to him. He guesses that it's the same for Callie, the hurt – the guilty that shouldn't be there but is – because they've both lost the people they love. He glances over at her and spares a thought for George, it's been six years for both of them but Callie's had a rougher time of it than he has. Alex is certain of that.

Callie appears behind him and places a hand on his shoulder – they've got used to this, yearly trips to the graveyard to mourn those who they have lost, and through it have become close, closer than they would've she's sure. It nearly makes her laugh, the fact it took something so awful to make them friends and Callie doesn't laugh for much these days. Alex stands and looks at her, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips, and they start to walk towards the car park. As they reach the boundary he turns, just for a fraction of a second, to look at his wife's grave, at Izzie Stevens' final resting place and burns at the unfairness of it all.

Callie spots the car from the path and starts towards it, Alex following just behind. "Are you ready to go back?" Lexie Grey asks, opening the car door and peering out. Callie appreciates the fact the younger doctor offered to drive them here today, neither her or Alex are in a particularly good state to drive. Callie knows, though, that it still hurt for Lexie like it hurt for her when George died. The three take their seats in the car, Callie in the front passage and Alex in the back, as Lexie puts the key into the ignition.

….

Addison Montgomery likes coffee. She likes it a lot. She also hasn't had any since the previous day and is starting to get twitchy. Derek always laughs when she gets twitchy but she doesn't see the funny side herself. "We've only got five minutes till check in Addie," Amelia Shepherd states, staring down at her watch. Addison looks around, hoping to catch a glimpse of her husband and notices him, ambling along near the elevator and points him out to Amy. As Derek comes closer Mark Sloan rounds the corner, his son next to him. Both she and Amy watch as he challenges Noah to a race and they make their way over in double quick time. It makes her happy to see Mark and Noah how they are – in vindicates her decision to persuade Slone to let Mark adopt him – he's a good father and it makes her think about what kind of father Derek would be, he's like an uncle to Noah already and it makes Addison wonder, just for a moment.

Derek reaches them and hands her a coffee which she drinks down quickly as Mark gives Amy one and the group starts making their way to the check out desks. Derek searches his pockets and retrieves the tickets, dolling them out and turning to face the woman sitting at the counter. The woman accepts them and starts feeding them through a machine while Mark breaks a candy bar and starts offering each of them a square. Derek wonders if they really had to come on this trip but remembers Erica Hahn's insistence that, as some of the best in their respective fields, they just _had_ to attend the Annual VMedtech conference being held in Seattle – and when the head of surgery tells you you have to go somewhere you usually do.

He moves out the way when Addison starts loading the bags onto the conveyer belt and he finds himself next to Amy. "Remind me why we brought Noah again, I though you said Mom was looking after him?" Derek nearly misses his sister's words because the woman at the desk is spouting information about where the bathrooms are in the departure lounge. When he finally works out what she has asked Noah is gleefully placing his rucksack next to Mark's suitcase. He smiles at this before speaking.

"Apparently," he says, "kids are welcome. The information in the booklet Hahn gave me said that everyone's going to bringing their kids," He nearly laughs at the absurdity of it all, medical conferences don't usually encourage you to bring your offspring but for some reason Derek thinks that this one's going to be different from anyone he's ever been to before. Mark turns, a smile lighting up his face.

"You guys ready for the flight then?"

…..

Meredith dislikes boxes as she stares at her hall. They're all over the place, haphazardly stacked on top of each other and she sighs as the doorbell rings. She moves over to the door and opens it, unsurprised to see Owen.

"I just…" he starts, gesturing at the boxes on the floor. "wanted to get my stuff," Meredith nods and stands to one side, allowing him in. She can remember the day they met, he'd been in his army uniform and they'd gone from there. Not one of the world's most romantic meeting but she had been happy. They had been happy, hadn't they, for the most part – but she guesses they just hadn't loved each other quite enough, no, just not enough.

Owen takes another step into the hall and she lets the door fall closed before turning to face him. "Is Emily at your mom's?" she asks, putting her hands in her pockets and leaning on the banister – Owen nods and laughs a little.

"You know my mom loves babysitting," he says a second later while picking up one of the boxes on the floor. Emily, Meredith thinks, is one of the reasons they stayed together as long as they did – their daughter, born just over two years ago. She has his eyes and her smile. Meredith hadn't wanted children, not really - not to start with – but when she had found out she was pregnant Owen had convinced her that her fears she'd be like her own mother were unfounded and he had been right, Emily meant the world to her and she knew know that she was nothing like her mother.

It had all be so wonderful when Emily had been born, but since then her relationship with Owen had started to fall apart – not with big arguments or with recriminations that couldn't be taken back, no, just slowly piece by piece until nearly a week ago while Emily was playing on the floor they had decided that enough was enough and they should go their separate ways – and that was that, Owen had moved out to stay with his mom until he found somewhere else.

Owen goes to take the box out when she speaks. "You don't have to do this know if you don't want to?"

"Meredith," he says gently, "I…."

"I was just thinking that Alex could help you or something, if you wanted," she interrupts quickly, gesturing around. "It's just….. he's at the graveyard at the moment…" she says, trailing off. Owen nods understandingly and puts the box down, glancing up at her.

"I'll come back later, yeah." he says, starting to the door. "I'll bring Emily," he continues as he opens the door. Meredith nods, happy that they can be like this, still be so friendly – but she guesses that down to the fact that they were friends before they got together – once a friend always a friend or something.

"Yeah," she says, watching him walk to his car. "See you tonight,"

….

Jackson Avery sits on his bed, in one hand he hold a phone while with the other he valiantly tries to do up his tie. "So what times the flight?" he says in to the phone. He sighs and continues to struggle with his tie. Two thousand miles away April Kepner sits in JFK airport, a phone also held to her ear. The chair she has chosen is uncomfortable and she been at the airport for the best part of three hours. "Soon," she says optimistically and then, trying to change the subject. "you ready for tonight?" Tonight, April knows, is the night Jackson Avery asks his girlfriend to marry him – and she pretends that it doesn't hurt quite as much as it does.

"Yeah," he says adjusting his tie again.

"I'm happy for you Jackson," April says and they both pretend they don't hear the wobble in her voice as she speaks.

"Well Lexie hasn't said yes yet," he replies, trying to joke, a moment later.

"She will, Jackson," she says, "of course she will." Her voice has an edge of bitterness that she has tried hard to disguise but it's bled through, just a little. Before Jackson can reply however the airport tannoy sounds.

"Will all passengers for Flight A170515 to Seattle please go to Gate 4 as boarding is about to begin." April stands, please that something is actually happening.

"That's me," she says to Jackson. "I've got to go," April starts off towards the gate, wheeling her suitcase behind her.

"See you tomorrow then April,"

"Yeah, good luck with Lexie yeah,"

"Yeah," April ends the call and stares forward, wondering why she always gets an empty feeling after she speaks to Jackson. In her rush to get to the departure gate she nearly walks flat into a red headed woman holding a cup of coffee.

….

Cristina watches the water run over her hands, washing them clean of any traces of the operation she has just completed. She turns the tap off and turns, pulling the paper towels from the dispenser and drying her hands. She waits as her husband does the same and then opens the door, letting them both out.

"I've got to do some paper work," Preston Burke starts, "but then do you want to get some coffee? We could go over the transmyocardial laser revascularization we're doing tomorrow?" Cristina looks over to him before replies.

"I told Mer that I'd go look in on one of her patients, maybe tomorrow?" As she stops speaking they reach a door, Burke reaches over and presses the release button, holding it open for his wife to pass through.

"Not going to happen Cristina," he starts, "the Vmedtech conference starts tomorrow, you know I can't miss that." He shakes his head as they come to a stop, he looks around and then settles his focus onto Cristina. "I don't think I'll make it home tonight, don't wait up." Cristina nods, leaning up and kissing Burke on the cheek.

"Don't let them keep you too long," she says, starting to walk off. "I know you're the chief," she adds turning round to face him. "but you do need to come home at some point"

….

"So you should be fine to go home tomorrow Tommy," Arizona Robbins says to the 7 year old boy lying in the bed. He nods as she places his chart back into its holder, her thoughts on getting out of the hospital – her shift should've been over two hours ago but little Tommy Redfern's appendix wasn't to know that.

As she slips out of the room she becomes aware that someone is calling her name and upon turning sees Jo Wilson walking up the corridor towards her. "What's wrong Wilson?" she asks exasperatedly.

"It's the Chief," Jo starts "He asked me to remind you that you're doing a seminar at the conference tomorrow." Arizona nods, starting forward towards the elevator and thanking Jo as she goes. She sighs as she pushes the button and puts her hands into her pockets, once again dreaming of the wine she has at home.

She's pulled out of her reverie by Miranda Bailey, who stands next to her, also waiting for the elevator. "Chief got you doing a seminar too?" Arizona looks down at the smaller doctor and nods. "It's not that I don't want too – it's just that we've never done something so big before," Bailey continues.

"Apparently having the VMed here is quite a coup," Arizona adds as the elevator dings and they both climb in. They stand in silence for a second before Arizona speaks again. "How's Richard?"

"Oh, you know, retirements not quite his thing." Bailey starts, thinking to the last time she saw the former chief – nearly a week ago when she and Ben had had him over for thanksgiving. Richard had seemed happy enough but they had both noticed how much he missed the thrill of operating – to be honest he had missed it since he'd given the chief of surgery seat to Burke nearly 8 years previously – even with the administrative job he had taken up at the hospital a few years back he still seemed just that little bit empty, like there was something missing now he no longer had his surgery.

"I heard Burke's asked him to speak at the conference, seeing as he still has a board seat and everything." Bailey nods at the blonde's words then asks.

"Are you coming to Meredith's birthday party tomorrow?" Bailey knows the blonde peeds doctor has been invited but asks anyway. The party's not going to be that big – Bailey knows- instead it'll be about ten people all cooing over little Emily and chatting about everything under the sun.

"Yeah," Arizona starts. "Sad about her and Hunt isn't it?"As the lift comes to its next floor and the doors rolls open Bailey shrugs and looks at Arizona.

"Everything ends at some point," she says, "but I know what you mean, it's like everything's a little different – like it's all changing." Bailey continues, exiting the lift and disappearing down a corridor. Arizona looks around for someone else to talk to but upon seeing no one starts off it the direction of the attending lounge, her sneakers rolling all the way.

She guesses that Bailey was right, everything is changing.

….

 _So, you see, you change one thing – one thing that you might not have even thought effected you to start with and every could be different – your life, your kids, the future you planned with the person you love – might not be yours at all._

 _All because you changed one of the little things._

 _..._

 ** _A/N Please review if you have the time - also if you want to know why I think certain things would've changed the way they have done just PM me and I'll try my best to explain. :)_**


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N Thank you to everyone who reviewed, they all made me very happy and inspired me to write this chapter in double quick time! Just like to say that my exams start again on Monday so the next chapter might take a few more days that this one to appear. :)**_

….

Mark doesn't like planes much, he always get this feeling that it's not quite safe – that something might go wrong the whole time. He's sitting in the middle seat, Noah near the window and Amelia the other side – Derek sits behind him and Addison is behind Noah, much to the little boy's enjoyment.

Mark leans down and retrieves a travel battleships game from his bag – having purchased the set in duty free when Addison gently inquired if he had anything for Noah to do during the flight. He places it on the table in front of him and turns to the window. God, everything looks so small, he thinks as he asks Noah if he wants to play.

"After I beat you," the young boy starts, "can I play Auntie Amy?"

At Noah's words, Mark half turns to see Amelia, on the fringes of sleep, give a little nod and say, "Of course little man. I'll be much harder to beat than your Daddy though." With her little warning in his mind Noah focuses his gaze on the tiny ships and a look of concentration comes over his face. Mark smiles at Amelia, who once again closes her eyes, and then picks up the submarine and places it on the grid.

Behind, Addison is staring out the window, watching the small towns flick by at a remarkable rate. Derek, beside her, is reading a medical journal and the red head sitting on the end is playing some tap sensitive game on her phone. Addison sighs tiredly and wonders if Derek will talk to her at all on the flight – but knowing him he'll get sucked into whatever he's reading and totally ignore the outside world until the plane lands in Seattle. Oh god, Seattle – the city where it always rains – Addison has already expressed her horror at this to all the adults travelling with them at least three times each; if Addison had her way, she and Derek would move to LA and spend all their time either working or sitting on the beach but they both have jobs in New York, lives, so why abandon it?

The woman on the end of the row is speaking but Addison has been to wrapped up in her hatred of the rain that she doesn't take it in all it – Derek sits obliviously in the middle and by the time Addison turns the redhead has already spoken twice. "Excuse me, please could you pass that magazine?" It takes Addison a moment to realise that the other woman is pointing at the stack of magazines stuffed in to the back of the chair in front of her but when she does she acts quickly, pulling the first one she can get her hands on out and then handing it past a silently chuckling Derek, to the redhead.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying any attention" Addison says as the woman takes the magazine off of her.

April Kepner opens the magazine and tries to avoid blushing at the embarrassment. God, she hadn't even wanted to go to the conference – not really – but Jackson had persuaded her _. 'Some of the world's best surgeons will be there April, you have to come,'_ he had said, and it was true – this trip did give her the opportunity to meet some top class surgeons, to try and improve as a doctor.

The man sitting next to her shifts a little as she hears someone say "See daddy I said I would beat you." April turns to look at the pair beside her and notices the man's eyes are very blue and remembers something that Reed said to her the last time they saw each other – _'You, April Kepner, like people based on their eyes._ ' She laughs quietly at the memory, now six months old, and turns back to her magazine but her thoughts are still on the man's eyes and Reed's words. She hasn't seen Reed, or Charles for that matter, since there wedding back in June - that had also been the last time she'd seen Jackson, but she had phoned and texted him since - Reed too.

Sometimes she wonders what it would've been like if she'd worked with them in Seattle, what it would've been like if she hadn't been fired and forced to move to New York to get another job, different definitely but how different she's not sure. She shrugs to herself, and turns her attention to an article on natural disaster's as the pilot announces that they're three hours from landing.

…

Lexie Grey places her spoon on the plate and looks up at her boyfriend. Jackson is staring down at his empty coffee cup, and doesn't react instantly when she starts talking. "That was nice." When he finally looks up a second later he has a serious look on her face and for a heartbeat Lexie worries that something bad has happened – to Meredith or Emily or her dad maybe, he has been distracted for the whole meal. Lexie's paranoia is worsened when Jackson starts to speak.

"Lex," he says, in Lexie's worried opinion, the way you would tell a family member that someone is dead. "We've been together, what, three years?" Lexie's mind is still on all the horrible scenario's that he might've been about to inform her about and she doesn't reply for a moment.

"Eh, what – yeah, we've been together three years," _What does it matter_ , she nearly adds, and _why so serious?_

"You know I love you yeah?" _Oh_ , she thinks, _this sounds like a confession._ "So," he says, getting out of his seat – giving Lexie the feeling he's going to walk out on her – and stands there. Then Lexie realises what's going to happen and it scares her. Jackson Avery gets down and one knee and asks her to marry him. "Lex?" he says after she doesn't immediately reply.

"Jackson," she starts. "I… I…I"

….

"So he's staying with his mother?" Cristina Yang asks, looking across at Meredith, her knees drawn up to her chest. "Ah, that's cute,"

"It's not cute," Meredith says, "It's actually quite sad," Her words cause Cristina to laugh, so Meredith turns her attention the other occupant of the room. Alex sits opposite them, a beer held in his hand.

"He's going to move out, yeah, and live somewhere else?" he asks in response to the conversation. Meredith nods and Alex continues, "Then it's not sad, nah – if he planned on living with his mom for the rest of his live then that would be sad." He looks like he's going to say something else but Cristina interjects.

"See Mere, he agrees – it's cute."

"No," Alex as the doorbell rings, "That is not what I said." Meredith moves from next to Cristina as she moves towards the door. Upon opening it she sees her daughter and Owen standing on the porch.

"Hey," Owen starts. "You said to come back later," He hands Emily over as Meredith goes to one side to let him in.

"Yeah, I know. Alex is here so he'll probably help," she says, gesturing with one hand in the vague direction of the living room. "Hey little girl," she says to Emily as Owen disappears into the lounge. Meredith follows a few moments later.

When she re-enters the room Alex is already on his feet and both men quickly disappear upstairs to start moving the boxes. Meredith puts Emily on the floor near a pile of play bricks and sits down next to her.

"How is my tiny little god daughter?" Cristina asks as they hear the boys come down the stairs.

"Mere," They hear Alex call. "could you get the door?" Meredith stands up and moves towards the hall. She opens the door and searches the area for anything to prop it open with. Owen and Alex put the boxes in the car as Meredith notices it has started to rain.

"Mere," she hears Cristina call from the other room. "You've got a text from Lexie. Apparently Jackson's proposed," As Alex comes back in Meredith smiles, happy for a sister.

"I so called that," he says as he starts to climb the stairs again.

"What?" Owen asks, coming to stand next to Meredith.

"Lexie and Jackson getting engaged," Alex replies, appearing at the top of the stairs. Before Owen can say anything to this, however, Cristina speaks again.

"Oh, they're not engaged, Alex – Lexie walked out on him."

….

Arizona looks round Joe's, her eyes falling on the two doctors sitting at the bar. She makes her way over to them and takes a seat next to Richard Webber.

"Hello, Dr Robbins," he says and then orders her a drink – she tries to reject it but a voice pipes up from beside the former chief of surgery.

"I've tried to stop him buying me drinks for the best part of half an hour – it doesn't work." Callie Torres points at the glass of tequila in front of her and laughs. Arizona laughs too and then takes a sip of the drink Joe has just placed in front of her.

"Thanks, Richard," she says as she puts in back down on the bar.

"Heard you were doing a seminar tomorrow," Callie states. "Burke's asked all the heads to do one – me, you, Bailey. You're doing one, aren't you ,Webber?" At the orthopaedic doctor's words, Richard looks up from his whiskey but takes another sip before speaking.

"Yes, it's the pitfalls of using opioids in the treatment of gall stones," Arizona can see that Callie is trying not to laugh and she starts to chuckle too – _must be the tequila_ , she thinks.

Behind them, a group of residents enter the bar – Arizona recognises all of them but can only think of a few of their names; Wilson, Edwards and Leah – and that's it. Arizona tries to behind Richard but Leah spots her and smiles. Arizona takes a long gulp of the tequila and wonders why she ever thought sleeping with her resident would be a good idea.

Richard, in between taking sips of his drink, starts to ask Callie how she's holding up.

"Well," Callie starts, before drinking all of the tequila in her glass and ordering another. "Today is the anniversary of George's death so I'm not doing so good,"

"How's George Jr?" Richard asks before looking round and seeing if he's in the bar.

"Louise is looking after him," she says. "That's George's mom," Callie adds for Arizona's benefit, even though Arizona knows full well who ' _Louise'_ is – she thinks everyone in the hospital must know about Callie and Louise O'Malley. This is on account of Callie's son, her little boy, who had born six months after his father was hit by a bus and died –something like doesn't get forgotten quickly. No it had lived on in gossip, rumours. Like the rumour that George sr had cheated on Callie with Alex Karev's cancer stricken wife and she had still got back with him – love, that's what they call it isn't it? Arizona knew for a fact that Alex and Izzie hadn't even been together when the incident had occurred so she doubted the validity of that particular rumour, but still – she knew there was some truth behind it.

Arizona drinks up her tequila and slips of the stool, wishing the others a good night and disappears from the bar into the cool night.

….

The plane lands in Seattle at the same time Lexie Grey reaches her sister's house, tears tracking down her face. She tells her sister, over and over, that life isn't fair.

"Oh," Meredith says, "who ever told you it was?"

….

 _ **A/N Thanks for reading. Please review if you have the time. :)**_


	3. Chapter 3

**_A/N Thanks for the review – they made my day. Hope you enjoy the chapter. :)_**

…

April Kepner really wants to be asleep; in fact she'd do all most anything to be wrapped up in her duvet back in New York right now. She looks down at the cup of coffee in her hand and prays that it will wake her up because she's ready to go back to bed at any second. April takes a long gulp of the coffee and then stands, moving over to the bathroom. She pulls a T-shirt from her holdall and slips it on. As she shrugs a cardigan on a knock at the door sounds, waking her up and bringing her back in to reality. She has no idea who it'll be, she's certainly not expecting anyone, but when she opens the door and sees Jackson she smiles – much better than house cleaning.

He has his hands stuffed in to his pockets and his coat is wet with the rain. When he sees April he smiles but they can both tell there's something wrong. "Shouldn't you be with Lexie?" she starts, in to the silence, her tone attempting to be jokey but it doesn't really come off. Jackson shrugs and looks up at her, which is when April sees that he's upset. "Jackson," she says, "are you al…"

He interrupts her, trying to clear up the confusion. "She didn't say yes April." _Oh_ , she thinks, _he's been dumped_. "Anyway," he adds a few heartbeats later, "you're going to be late for VMed if you don't hurry up."

…

Derek looks down at his watch and then up at his wife, sitting in front of the mirror applying the last of her mascara. He turns his attention back to his watch as he attempts to fasten the strap. The tension in the room is almost palpable and they're both waiting for the other to say something. In the end, Addison turns to face him, placing the mascara down on the table.

"Derek," she starts and he stands, not wanting to have this conversation – not when they both know how it'll end. "Derek, what we talked about last week," she says and Derek thinks back to the words they had said all the way back in New York, the previous Thursday, as they scrubbed out of a surgery on a pregnant twenty-four year old. They had talked about happiness, and being happy and how, together, they weren't as happy as they used to be.

"Yeah, I know what we talked about," he says, fiddling absentmindedly with his watch. He looks up at his wife and he can see in her eyes what she's going to say.

"I think we should get divorced." He nods, it's all he can do, he's not sure what he's supposed to do – how he's supposed to react. "Derek?" she asks second later.

"Yeah?" he finally says and he can see she wants to say something, but the words die on her lips as someone knocks at their door. They both go to move but Derek is closer to the door and gets there first, pulling it open to reveal his sister. She's smiling and is so unaware of the decision that the two adults in the room have just come to.

"You guys coming? This thing starts in like twenty minutes" Amy was exaggerating and they all knew it, however if they don't get moving soon they will be late. Derek walks out the room and holds the door open for Addison – Amy moves up the corridor towards Mark and Noah, playing battleships near the lift.

Derek and Addison stand for a few seconds by the door, neither looking at each other. "You know I still love you?" Derek says.

"Just not enough?" Addison replies a heartbeat later, the words nearly catching in her throat.

"Just not enough, anymore,"

….

Callie Torres opens the bedroom door and instantly regrets drinking so much tequila. Her head is pounding and her mouth is dry and she can't quite remember what happened. As she heads for the bathroom she wonders if Alex is awake – or for that matter, did he even come home instead of staying at Meredith's?

Her question is answered by a large bang from the kitchen and, unless they're being robbed, Alex is in there attempting to make breakfast. This arrangement – the two of them living together – came about from sheer loneliness, two people who hadn't wanted to live alone. They had both lost the people they should've been sharing there lives with and so had come together to make the pain slightly more bearable. Anyway, for Callie it meant she had someone to help her with George Jr – someone to help during all the sleepless nights.

The doorbell rings and she hears Alex – or the robber, she's still not sure – stop what they're doing and answer it. Definitely Alex then – your common burglar doesn't answer the door in the flat the robbing. Callie hears Louise's voice and then that of her son's and smiles because she feels lucky to have a child at all. She's also happy that it's the holidays – meaning she gets to spend more time with him in the mornings before she goes to work.

She disappears in to the bathroom and when she comes out, ten minutes later, George is making a tower out of Lego bricks and Alex is standing at the counter, eating pancakes.

"Oh, hey," he says when he sees her. George is too busy concentrating on his tower to start with but when he realises that someone else has entered the room, he jumps up.

"Mommy!" he calls, running over to Callie and hugging her.

"Hey little bambi," she says, kissing his head and looking down at him. George breaks the hug and returns to his Lego as Callie takes a pancake and a seat at the counter. "You ready for the conference Karev?" she asks and then wonders why she just called him by his last name – habit she supposes. "Are you leading any of the seminars?" she asks as George's Lego tower wobbles.

"Nope, Robbins is doing the Peads one– you're doing one right?" Callie nods and takes another bite of the pancake.

"Yep," she says once she's finished eating. "Mine is scheduled for three-thirty this afternoon." Callie stands but as she does so George's tower does one final wobble and then collapses. The little boy stares and the rubble and then starts to piece it all back together. Callie smiles, at least he knows what is broken can be fixed.

….

Cristina hands her husband a cup of coffee and then proceeds to take the seat opposite him. They're in his office – the chief's office- talking about how well their surgery has just gone.

"It was good ,wasn't it," Cristina says twisting round in the swivel chair. Burke smiles and looks down at the paper work littering his desk. A comfortable silence descends and the couple both return to their thoughts. Burke turns his attention to the list of surgeons attending the VMed and searches the list to see how many people he knows. There are a few the jump out at him but there isn't anyone on the list he has seen in over ten years.

Cristina swivels in the chair once more and then sits up – taking a gulp of the coffee in her hand as she does so. "Your mother phoned last night," she says, leaning forward and placing the empty cup on the desk. "She wants us to go down and see her." Burke doesn't react to start with but when he does he takes his glasses off and looks at her.

"I know you two don't get on that well…"

" _Well_?" Cristina laughs. "That woman took my eyebrows!" she adds a second later, trying to stop herself from laughing.

"You're never going to for forgive her for that are you?" Burke asks, he too laughing.

"Nope," Cristina replies. "Never,"

….

Meredith looks down at the sleeping girl in her arms and then up at the elevator walls. She's on her way to day care – Emily in her arms- and isn't really looking forward to the day ahead. The conference is going to be seminar after seminar and she's heard most of them before and the worse bit – Burke's put her on meet and greet, it's going to be her job to make sure all the doctors who haven't got any place to be don't wonder too far off.

Great; glorified babysitting.

When she gets to day care Miranda Bailey is coming out – having just dropped Tuck off. "Dr Grey?" she starts. "How's little Emily doing?"

"Oh, she's wonderful," Meredith says. "Aren't you wonderful, Emily," she then adds for her daughter sake.

"I heard about you and Owen," Bailey states almost hesitantly.

"Oh, Bailey" Meredith says, her eyes still on Emily. "Everyone in this whole hospital's heard."

"You're doing alright, though, aren't you?" Bailey asks, and for a moment Meredith is reminded of when she had been an intern – when everyone had still been here, still been alive. Meredith drags her thoughts away from George and Izzie's deaths and back to reality.

"It's been tough, but yeah, I'm good," she finally says. "It's not like Owen's run away, so we're not alone." She shrugs, seeing Callie and George climb out of the elevator. They walk over while Bailey explains that she has to go prep for her seminar and disappears.

Both Callie and Meredith enter day care at the same moment and reluctantly relinquish the care of the children to the staff before remerging. "Alex came over last night," Meredith explains, "Drank some beer, helped Owen move some boxes – he's seems to be doing alright," she adds optimistically a few seconds later.

"That's good, he likes looking after George – said to me once it's once Izzie would've done, you know, help me. So yeah, he's not too bad really, not anymore."

"What about you? Are you okay?" Meredith asks, looking through the glass at the day care centre – a man with a son about the same age as George enters and talks with one of the workers for a bit.

"It's been six years Mere," Callie jokes. "I'm fine," she says.

"Yesterday was the anniversary of your husband's death – I'm not sure you're that fine Callie." Meredith warns. "Where d'you go?"

"To Joe's. Sat with Webber and Robbins for most of the evening then went home and I can't remember anything else." Callie shrugs and then glances around. "I've got to go, I'm doing a seminar and I really don't want to, so if you want to see one of the worst seminar's ever come and see mine yeah Grey," Callie starts off in the direction of the stair, leaving Meredith by herself.

Well, wasn't she always the one left on her own.

….

Burke stands at the front of the packed auditorium, his voice reverberating around the room. "Hello and welcome to the annual Vmedtech conference; held this year at Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital." He continues to discuss the layout of the three days; explaining who each seminar will be performed by, where they will be held, where you can wait between seminars and, most importantly, where the nearest bar is.

Derek, sitting next to Mark, finds it hard to concentrate – his mind is still on his conversation with Addison, on what they had decided. He applauds at the right points and laughs at the unfunny jokes when he's supposed to but he doesn't really take much of it in. So when the auditorium starts to empty, half an hour after they took their seats, he isn't overly sure where he should be going. Derek is suddenly very happy that his sister decided to chose the same specialty as him and he gravitates towards Amelia as everyone else starts to file out.

When he had been younger, he had always been slightly annoyed that Amelia had decided to follow him in to neuro – none of his other sisters had done that, they'd all gone on to do separate things, different specialties but Amy, little, hurricane Amy had wanted to be just like her big brother. Derek worked it out though, one Christmas at his mother's house – why Amy had chosen to go in to neurology above everything else – it was, quite obviously for something that took him years to work out, for the same reason he had. He had watched his father be shot – in the head – and hadn't been able to save him. Derek knows he had been a kid but still, he had just watched him die. For Derek, every patient on that table is his dad. It's the same for her, for Amelia, that's why she was the only one to go in to the same specialty as him, she was the only one of his sisters there – the only one who felt the guilt, the helplessness – the only one for whom everyone of their patients is their dad.

Like he thought, it's obvious in hindsight.

Amy informs him, after he asks, that the first Neuro seminar is in an hour and that they're allowed to wait in various places around the hospital until it starts. He watches Amy disappear out of the auditorium and he follows a few heartbeats later. But when he gets to the designated waiting room he can't see her. Instead, he's greeted by about 35 doctors, all milling about – some talking, some reading, some just sitting on their own. As he enters a blonde woman starts making her way over to him. He looks around the room at all the other faces and when he turns back she's by his side.

"Hello," she starts, offering her hand. "I'm Dr Meredith Grey,"

….

George likes having a friend to play with, so when he had entered day care that morning he had instantly gone over to the new boy – and was very happy to find that Noah was six just like him. They had played with the Lego for a bit – making very big towers and watching them wobble and fall and then building them all the way back up again. George liked that, building the towers up all over again.

After they put the Lego away - Kay having said that it was scaring the younger children, the noise it made when the tower fell – George decides he's going to take Noah to his favourite place in the whole hospital, his special room – a secret between himself and Emily's dad and only them.

They disappear when the adults are busy with the little kids and he doesn't think anyone notices. He tells Noah that it's going to be exiting – and that it's a secret and they both run down the stairs until they reach the very last floor.

He pulls the door open and reveal's his secret place – the place Owen told him he could go if he ever go sad about his dad. The vent room.

….

Owen doesn't know why he goes to the basement – probably out of some need to be on his own he guesses. He's got his paper work in one hand and a pen in the other and settles down on a gurney in a tunnel full of them.

Owen sighs as he fills in the patient information on the form – it being his sixth one – and looks up. He wishes that he and Meredith had been able to make it work – but they had tried, tried so freaking hard – but in the end it hadn't been enough.

He's shaken from his reverie by the elevator doors sliding open. He turns back to his paper work but a few moments later a woman, who Owen has never met before rounds the corner and stares at him. The woman looks stunned to see another person and stumbles slightly before speaking.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think there'd… I'd didn't mean to interrupt you," she says, gesturing at his paperwork.

"Oh, it's fine – you saved me from it more than anything," he starts, shuffling the paper and moving in to a better position. "You knew here or something?" he asks, leaning back on the wall. The woman shrugs and looks at him.

"I'm here for the conference – my seminars not for an hour and I just wanted to go somewhere quiet." She shrugs again and then introduces herself. "I'm Amelia Shepherd, neuro. You?" she asks.

"Owen Hunt, trauma." Amelia nods and shakes his outstretched hand. "Nice to meet you Amelia," he adds a moment later. Amelia goes to say something but behind her, a door bursts open and a little boy starts coming towards them.

"Mr Owen," he says and Owen jumps of the gurney, a worried look painted on his face. "It's my friend, he's hurt and he's crying and there was blood." Owen moves forwards slightly and then turns back to Amelia.

"You alright to stay with him?" She nods and crouches, looking at the little boy. She notices Owen disappear in the room as she speaks. "What's your name then?"

"George, it's George. Do you think he'll be alright?" he asks and Amelia doesn't know what to say – she had no idea what state the other boy is in. That's when she notices the blood trickling from a wound on George's hand.

"What have you done there?" she inquires, pointing at his hand. It's a deep cut, she notes, but when George does reply, he seems more worried for his friend.

"It's just I haven't know him very long and, and, and…." He trails of and behind him Owen reappears.

He gestures with his head for Amelia to come over and then says, "George, can you be a big boy for me and just wait there." The little boy nods as Amy reaches the trauma surgeon. She can hear the little whimpers from the door and suddenly thinks that whatever is wrong, it's pretty bad. "I've paged some people and they'll be down soon but I need some help moving him." Amy nods. "It's a broken leg, a pretty bad one at that so we don't want to move him too much."

"Did he fall?" she asks as they enter the room.

"Yeah, I think so."

"So we've got to be careful of head trauma." Owen nods and she turns her attention to the boy on the floor. She gasps even though she's trying to hold it together. Owen looks up at her, concern evident in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

Before she can answer, everything falls to pieces and she can't help herself. She rushes over to the little boy lying prone on floor, remembering the day before, when she'd played battleships with him on the flight over here.

Noah is crying, his leg lying at an awkward angle, clearly broken.

...

 _ **a/n Any thoughts?**_


	4. Chapter 4

**_a/n thanks for the reviews! Hope you enjoy :)_**

….

Amelia looks down at the water, rushing over her hands – washing Noah's blood from her fingers. She's in an OR scrub room of a hospital she doesn't know, cleaning blood from her palms. Noah. Noah's blood – she can't quite shake the image of his leg from her mind, the funny thing is if it had been any one else she would have forgotten it like any other patient but it was him – little Noah who she's known since he was a baby and it hurts her to think of him, lying there on the floor. She tries to shake herself from these thoughts and turns to dry her hands. Owen, next to her, turns too and they stand for a moment, regarding each other.

"You okay?" he asks, he's already asked about six times.

"Yeah I'm fine," she almost adds _'you know me'_ but he doesn't, he doesn't know her so why should he know that Amelia Shepherd has already survived an unusually large amount heartbreak and pain and suffering. Owen grabs a paper towel and continues to stare at her, his eyes an intense kind of blue she hasn't really ever seen before. She reaches into her jeans pocket and pulls out her cell, scrolling down the contacts till she reaches Mark's number. Owen nearly tells her that she shouldn't be using a phone in here but he stops him self – what does it matter?

He thinks back to the boy, lying on the floor, and instantly feels guilty – it's was he that told George to go there, him that had shown the room to the boy in the first place. He shouldn't have done it, he knows that now - it was far too dangerous for a little boy. The leg wasn't bad – not compared to some of the things Owen's seen – but he's more worried about possible head trauma. When Lexie had made it down, being the on call Peads doctor, Owen had informed her what had happened. He thinks he introduced Amelia – that's her name isn't it?- but most of the details are lost in a blur. He knows that George was bleeding too, having cut his hand on some metal and wonders if he too will be alright.

Amelia slips the phone back in to her pocket and goes to leave, turning back and looking at the room. Her eyes are drawn towards Owen and his leg, the torn fabric and the dried blood. "Hey," she says uncertainly. "You've cut yourself," she gestures down at his leg and watches as he looks down and she realises he hadn't noticed it – _that's impressive,_ she thinks, _'cause that's one hell of a deep cut._

"Oh," he says and looks back. "I'll get it sutured then," he talks as if he's going to do it immediately, by himself, but he doesn't move. Amelia, too, stays where she is, then, out of nowhere she speaks.

"I can do it if you want? You know I am a doctor too."

….

Lexie Grey looks down at the scans, tilting them up to the light to get a better angle. Broken, definitely broken – but then again the bone was poking through the skin so it's not so much of a surprise. Lexie puts the x-ray's back into their envelope and turns to look at the little boy they belong to - Hunt filled her in on the details so she knows how this happened – she knows he's called Noah Sloan and that he was in so much pain they had to sedate him. _Poor little guy,_ she thinks.

Someone taps her on the shoulder and for a second she thinks it's Jackson and nearly has a heart attack. However, when she turns Helen from the front desk is standing there. "I've got this guy at the front desk – says his friend texted him to say his son's been in an accident and to ask for Dr Grey but he's fuzzy on the details." She pauses and looks at Lexie "Do have a patient called Noah Sloan?"

"Oh yeah," Lexie says. "These are his x-rays." Helen nods and then turns before saying.

"I'll send him round?"

"Yeah, go for it Helen," Lexie says, only half paying attention to the other woman's words. The thought of coming face to face with Jackson still shaking her. She's not sure she could deal with it – just like she could deal with it when he proposed. Oh, Lexie knows it was stupid to walk out on him but she hadn't been able to do anything else. It's all round the hospital already, having already replaced the breakup of Owen and Meredith's relationship as the hot topic for gossip. She sighs and wonders why she had been so scared of commitment with Jackson, why she hadn't been able to take that final step with him. But it doesn't matter what the reason was, she still walked out and ended their relationship, didn't she.

She hears someone clear their throat behind her and turns to see a man, a confused look painted on to his face. "Are you Dr Grey?"

"Yeah, are you Noah Sloan's dad?" The man initially nods but then speaks.

"Well he's adopted and I…" he trails off when Lexie looks up at him but a second later continues. "Well I'm his granddad really and you did not need to know that," Lexie looks down at the x-rays in her hand and tries not to laugh. A few, slightly awkward, seconds pass and then Lexie looks up at him.

"I'm treating Noah," she starts and Mr Sloan nods happily. "He's broken his leg, pretty bad I'd say from the x-rays I've just seen."

"Okay," he starts, nodding along with his words. "My friend told me it was an open tib-fib…."

"And you want to know what that means?" Lexie asks, _they always want you to clarify medical jargon for you, don't they?_

"No, no – I know what it is." He starts the adds a heartbeat later. "I'm a doctor to – here for the conference actually." His words cause Lexie to nod and feel like she's going red with embarrassment.

"Sorry, I didn't know," she half whispers and for a second she doesn't thinks he's heard.

"It's fine – many people peg me as a male model or an actor. So you know, it's alright." At this Lexie laughs and he does too. "I'm Mark Sloan by the way." He extends a hand and she shakes it, smiling up at him as she does so.

"I've asks an orthopaedic doctor to come and have a look so we'll know more after that." She looks at him and guesses what his next question will be. "I'm Peads if you were wondering – you?"

"Plastics." Lexie nods, wondering if she should've gone into a different specialty. Sometimes she thinks she should've gone for neuro but when the push had come to the shove, Arizona was much more persuasive than Dr Nelson so she had pumped for peads. She doesn't really regret it but sometime she wonders, not for long – just for a bit.

She looks at Mark and then down again – they've just got to wait for the Ortho consult to turn up. Lexie prays that it'll be Callie not Jackson – not wanting an argument to break out here. But her worst fears are confirmed when someone calls out 'who paged for an Ortho consult?' and she recognises his voice. She puts up her hand a little and he sees, moving over to them brusquely.

"Hello," he starts, talking to Mark. "I'm Dr Avery," Sloan nods and Jackson turns to Lexie.

"What is it?" he asks, his voice hushed slightly. Lexie hands him the x-rays as Jackson starts to stare at her, and she can feel the anger radiating from him.

"He's in there," she informs him, gesturing to the room Noah Sloan is in. She watches him stalk, for that is the only word she can think of to describe it, over to the room and enter. When she turns back to Mark he's laughing a little to himself.

"I'm not trying to be rude or anything," he starts, "but you could cut the tension between you two with a chainsaw."

…

Amelia doesn't know how she got into this situation – she's standing in a hospital exam room preparing a needle for sutures. She looks to the window and sees Owen, standing by it looking out before turning her attention back to the task in hand.

"Would you just.. sit down?" she asks, breaking the silence. He turns, as if he only half listened to her words and looks her up and down. "It's just you're trailing blood and… you know" she says shrugging. He nods and moves over to the bed, taking a seat and looking across at her.

She's finished prepping the sutures and drags the tray over to him. "Could you stand up?" she asks and Owen obliges. Again, Amelia wonders how she got in this situation. She takes the anaesthetic and injects in into the cut without telling him it's going to be sharp scratch – he's a trauma surgeon, he's probably told a thousand people exactly the same thing. Amelia leans over and takes the suture.

"I'm going to start now," she says. Remarkably, to her at least, Owen doesn't flinch – he barely even moves to be honest. "Wow you're tough," she says when she's three quarters done. He looks at her and then says, a shrug accompanying his words.

"You could've done it without the anaesthetic, I've been through worse." As Amelia starts to wonder what this _worse_ is the door opens. Arizona stands in the door way, her face the picture of confusion.

"Hunt," she says. "What… what is going on?" Amelia just finishes the sutures and places the needle down on the tray before looking over to the blonde standing at the door.

"Thanks," Owen says, his eyes on Amelia. Arizona just stares – confused about what the hell is going on.

"Owen?" she asks again and when he doesn't reply – to busy checking his sutures – she turns to Amy. "Who are you?"

"Amelia Shepherd." Amy says. "I'm here for the conference." _And to suture a random man's leg but let's not mention that._

"Do you know where Callie is?" Owen's words just confuse Arizona even more but she manages to stumble out a reply.

"She's in the OR– an amputation or something. Why?"

"Oh, it's just George has hurt himself." Arizona stares at him – _what a day_ , she thinks, _what a day._

….

Meredith sits in the Attending lounge, which is currently populated with doctors waiting for seminars but contrary to what she had thought this morning, the meet and greet stuff hasn't been too bad. To her left, Derek sits, a cup of coffee held in his hand. To start with they talked of risky surgeries – like when he, Addison, Mark and a couple more surgeons had flown to Boise to operate on conjoined twins. But they soon moved on to weird cases and Derek has to admit – she's one-uped him on almost everything.; a little girl who couldn't feel pain, the patient who swallowed ten Judy Dolls head's, a boy literally encased in cement; Meredith's list of wacky patient's seems endless.

"Oh, yeah," Meredith starts, "we had this one guy who had eaten his book and had mercury poisoning," She sounds like she still can't believe it and it makes Derek laugh. As he goes to tell one of his own stories his cell buzzes and he slips it out of his pocket. He reads it quickly, then again just to make sure.

"Are you married?" he asks, looking up at Meredith. The question comes out of nowhere and it surprises her. This is not the turn in conversation she was expecting. "Or have a sister who works here?"

"Yeah," Meredith answers a little uncertainly. "My sister works here? Why?"

"Oh it's just my friend's son's been in an accident and my sister just texted me to go to the main desk and ask for a Dr Grey."

"Oh, okay. I can show you the way, if you want?"

….

 _ **a/n Any thoughts?**_


End file.
